


Thriller Night

by writingstylinson



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Apple Bobbing, Caught wearing the same costume, Costume Making, Costume Party, F/M, Frat Boy Harry Styles, Frat Boy Liam, Frat Boy Niall, Grumpy Louis, Halloween, Louis and Zayn are roommates, Louis is a jerk at first, Louis makes his own costume, M/M, Smoking, Wore the same costume, college party, costume contest, frat party, halloween fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-04
Updated: 2019-10-04
Packaged: 2020-11-23 21:55:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,398
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20896703
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writingstylinson/pseuds/writingstylinson
Summary: Louis Tomlinson takes Halloween seriously... very seriously. He goes all out in decorating his shared apartment and always wears the best costume he can think of. The cherry on top? Winning the costume contest at Niall’s annual Halloween party for the third time in a row. Well… it will be.Until he sees a college freshman wearing the same costume as him.





	Thriller Night

”Thank God,” Louis says under his breath once he reads the sign that’s taped to the glass door. 

Zayn tosses the butt of his cigarette in front of himself and crushes it into the concrete, “I told you they were open till nine.” 

“I know, okay?” 

Louis and Zayn had smoked a few bowls after attending the only class they have together, and ended up falling asleep for three hours. When he finally woke up and saw how dark it was outside, he had panicked and woke Zayn up while he searched for his phone. Irritated and still stoned, Zayn had looked up how long the store was open. 

Now they’re here. 

“I need to get some paint and a canvas while we’re here,” Zayn says as he’s already making his way over to the art section. 

Despite needing to collect his own supplies, Louis follows him. The guy doesn’t fuck around with browsing or wasting any time on things he doesn’t care about. For him it’s as easy as walking into a store and grabbing what he wants before leaving. Simple. Louis figures he might as well tag along for the few minutes it’ll take. 

Is there an ulterior motive in following his friend instead of searching out his own needed materials? Possibly. 

Yes. 

The fact that Louis has three days to decide on a costume then make it from scratch is daunting. He’s never been one to be stumped on an idea when it comes to his favorite holiday. Usually, he has his costume picked out and finished by the first week of October. Now, he has until Thursday night. That’s hard enough as is, let alone when his college classes and assignments are added to the mix. There’s no time. 

Louis shoves his hands into his hoodie pockets. To an outsider's perspective, he probably looks like a bum that rolled in from the streets. He’s dressed in a pair of tattered sweatpants, a hoodie with his university’s name printed across it, and a pair of slippers that don’t even belong to him. Not to mention his hair sticking up in every direction. He did just roll out of bed though, and he’s a college student so maybe the couple other customers are sympathetic at least. 

“What’s taking you so long?” Louis snaps. Zayn has been crouched down and staring at the same three bottles of paint for ten minutes now. It’s not that hard to pick a color and be done. 

A beat of silence passes between them. 

“Well?” 

Zayn turns on the balls of his feet and shoots Louis a look, “it’s not my fault you waited until the last minute to pick out a stupid costume.” 

Louis opens his mouth then closes it. He’s the type of person to always have a response, but in this case Zayn is right. Theoretically, a college project is more important than dressing up for a party. Then again, he’s not just dressing up. He’s trying to win the annual costume contest for the third time in a row. There’s nothing easy about that, which is probably why he hasn’t come up with what he’s going to dress up as. It’s a lot of pressure. 

“Would you stop being so impatient?” Zayn says as he stands up to his full height, “your foot tapping is driving me crazy.” He looks between the color options once again before putting one of them back on the shelf. “I got what I need, so lets go pick out some stupid fabric and get out of here.” 

Louis gives a tight nod before leading Zayn to the center of the store. It helps to let him look around at all the selections before he starts to go through them one by one. 

He screws his lips and runs his fingertips over a section of different fabrics. They’re a mixture of different crazy patterns from green lightning bolts on an orange background to pink hearts on a navy blue floral patterns. Who in their right mind would even choose to use these? What would they even use them for? It’s definitely not a pattern Louis would want to wear out in public. Hell, he wouldn’t even make it into a collar for his non-existent dog. 

“What should I go as? I can’t think of anything good,” Louis grumbles. 

Zayn tilts his head to look at Louis and cocks an eyebrow, “You’re seriously asking me?” He shakes his head. “You know I think Halloween is just another stupid holiday for people to wear skimpy outfits and get drunk off their asses. I don’t even understand why you take it so seriously.” 

Louis scowls at him. 

“Fine,” Zayn sighs with a roll of his eyes, “go as a fucking trophy. Get some gold spray paint and just spray it all over your soccer uniform. Maybe even a soccer ball. Voila, you’re a sexy golden trophy.” 

“That’s just fucking lazy. Anyone can spray paint themselves and call it a fucking costume. This is first place we’re talking about, Z.” Louis frowns and puts back the roll of fabric he’s managed to pull out. “I might as well go as a playboy bunny with a suggestion like that.” 

Zayn shrugs his shoulders, “You’re the one that asked, man.” 

Louis strokes his jaw and stares off ahead. Last year he had dressed up as Jack from the infamous movie The Shining. It had been a hit with everyone and people kept wanting to borrow his ax. His impression of “here’s Johnny” was spot on. The year before, his first year at college, he went safe by dressing up as Danny from his favorite movie, Grease. He had starred as Danny in the play his last year of high school, and still had the outfit so he figured he’d wear it. 

Since September, Louis has been trying to bounce around some ideas. He feels like he’s done both ends of the spectrum from classic to horror. So what does he do next? Louis had contemplated dressing as Edward Scissorhand, and even put together the outfit. He just wasn’t feeling it though. Then he had thought about going as the playboy Ipkiss from The Mask, but he doesn’t feel like his body shape would pull the whole look together like he’d want. 

“Wonder how many sexy nurses will be there,” Louis says with a chuckle. He nods his head towards the nurse costume that’s hung in the small collection of Halloween items. Off to the side is a white coat paired with a stethoscope for a classic doctor look. He rolls his eyes before he looks back at the fleece in his hands. It’s a bright red color. He knits his eyebrows together and looks between the fabric and the stethoscope. “I’m going to need tan leggings and a matching top.” 

+ + + + +

Louis grins as he brings the red solo cup to his lips and takes his first sip of alcohol for the night. It’s cheap beer that tastes no better than piss, but he doesn’t care. With an exaggerated sigh, he holds the cup up as if making a toast, “This tastes fucking awful.” 

“And I bet you’ll have ten more by the end of the night,” Perrie remarks with a smirk. 

“Right you are!” 

Perrie is Zayn’s girlfriend of three years and they’re still going strong. Louis can tell with ease by the fact that she’s managed to convince her other half into wearing a costume. A couples’ costume. Zayn has on a purple coat and his hair is sprayed a bright green color to portray none other than the Joker. Perrie, on the other hand, has finally grown her hair out long enough to put into pigtails so she can go as Harley Quinn. She wanted them to go as the pair when the movie Suicide Squad had come out, but she had complained that she’d look like a cheap knockoff with how short her hair was at the time. 

Louis takes another sip and turns his back to the island counter that’s littered with alcoholic beverages. There’s an archway that separates the large living room from the kitchen so he’s able to see the transformed dance floor. He tilts his chin up to get a better look and tries to scope out all of the costumes he can. There’s a handful of girls in leotards with bunny ears and a cotton tail, which is no surprise. He also sees a handful of super heroes and pirates on the men. He’s not entirely sure why the latter surprises him.

“What the…” He trails off with wide eyes. 

Perrie makes an abrupt turn from Zayn to look at him, “What? Tell me.” 

He motions towards a man on the outskirts of the crowd who’s at least six feet tall and is all muscle. On top of his head are a pair of devil horns and in his hand is a small pitchfork. What has Louis shocked is the fact that aside from the accessories, the man is only wearing a tiny pair of red underwear. It leaves absolutely nothing to the imagination. 

Perrie giggles and bumps shoulders with Louis, “it’s for sex appeal.” 

“To who? The girls or the guys?” 

She shrugs, “Both?” 

Louis shakes his head to himself. Whatever floats the guy’s boat. Loud cheering pulls him from his thoughts and he looks off towards what’s supposed to be the dining room. The long table has been pushed up against the wall to make room for a steel oval tub. From what he can see, it’s filled with water, red apples, and a few small glass bottles. He thinks the bottles are filled with vodka, but he can’t be certain from the distance. 

“Bet you won’t dare me,” he smirks and nudges Zayn in the ribs. 

Zayn gives him a light shove, “You’re right. I won’t.” 

Louis can’t help the pout that forms on his lips. “Fine.” He saunters over to the crowd that has gathered around the person currently bobbing for apples. Or the bottle. Louis isn’t sure yet. It takes a couple times of asking people to move for him to make his way to the front, and he finds that it’s Niall who’s participating in the party game. Louis cups his hands around his mouth and whoops in support. 

After he finally grips a travel sized bottle of vodka between his teeth, Niall stands up and pumps his hand up in the air. 

The cheers take a minute to simmer down, and that’s when Niall spots him, “Tommo! You made it!” 

Louis rolls his eyes with a chuckle, “Of course I did. I have a contest to win the third time in a row.” 

Niall slings an arm around his shoulders and nods towards the tub, “You gonna try? Payne and I filled it with a shit ton of apples so it’s harder to get the bottles. Thirty seconds to get as many as you can.” He motions towards Bressie, who’s leaning against the far wall as he talked to a girl. “He’s got the high score of two.” 

“Two?” He raises an eyebrow, “doesn’t sound like a lot.” 

“Give it a shot then!” Niall shouts before he pumps his fist in the air repeatedly, “Tommo! Tommo! Tommo!” 

Louis sighs and drags himself over to the bin, a girl standing by the tub with a timer pulled up on her phone. She motions for him to go and he dives face first into the mass of apples. Niall wasn’t kidding about dumping a shit ton of them. He tries to push the apples away with his nose before sucking in to have the bottle go into his mouth. After dropping it onto the floor, he dives into the tub again for another one. He manages to pull out one more as the timer rings out. 

“Tommo’s got you tied!” Niall shouts over to Bressie. 

The tall man merely shrugs. 

Louis tosses one of the clear bottles to Niall and takes the other one for himself. They're quick to pop them open and down the contents in seconds. He doesn't miss the familiar burn as it travels down his throat. He loves it. Niall, being Irish himself, also handles his alcohol well. They share a grin before giving each other a quick hug.

Niall is one of the multiple members of the fraternity and is always the one to throw these crazy parties. Between it all, he still finds time to hangout and reconnect with Louis. They've been friends since the first day of college and even shared a dorm room that first year. Louis knows for a fact that the guy will be a permanent fixture in his life.

Louis squeezes his way through the crowd before he bounds back over to Zayn and Perrie. He can tell that Perrie’s been trying to urge him to dance, but they all know that he’s much happier drinking his beer in the corner. Maybe there’s a room upstairs where they can all smoke weed together. “Ooh! Cookie!” He says and tears a piece from the one Perrie is eating. “Who made these? This is fucking delicious,” he moans. 

“Harry did,” Perrie says before finishing the last of her treat. 

“Well tell him that he can bake for me anytime he wants,” Louis says and waggles his eyebrows. He doesn’t have a clue who Harry is, but he likes a man who can bake. 

The sound of wolves howling comes through the speakers and Louis hurries his way into the crowd on the dance floor. Once he's at the front and can feel the liquid courage coursing through his veins, he finds that he doesn't care if people watch him. Louis starts to dance by jerking his head toward the right in time with raising his right shoulder. One year his school had done a musical number of Michael Jackson's Thriller and he had an absolute blast doing it. 

_ 'Cause this is thriller, thriller night _

_ Girl, I can thrill you more than any ghoul could ever dare try _

_ Thriller, thriller night _

_ So let me hold you tight and share a killer, thriller _

Louis moves in a semi-circle while making a forward jerking movement with his shoulder. Then he freezes. In front of him is a guy who’s nearly a head taller than him and pupils so blown that Louis can’t make out the color that should be surrounding it. Before he can even process a thought, his mind is speaking for him, “You’re wearing my costume.” 

He’s clearly gone for the same costume idea as Louis. There’s some variation as he’s wearing what looks to be like tan nurse scrubs with the small game pieces made out of paper and stuck to his clothes, and he’s even got on a red nose. Louis, on the other hand, had gone a bit sexy with his costume by wearing skin tight leggings and a long sleeved shirt that matches his skin tone, a pair of red shorts that show how good of an ass he has, and the small objects from the game Operation made out of felt. 

The guy grins and looks down at himself before looking back at Louis, “We’re matching! It must be fate-” 

“No,” Louis shakes his head repeatedly and tugs on his hair, “no no no.” He doesn’t even spare the man a goodbye and makes a beeline through the crowd, hoping that Zayn is still where he left him. He is. “Zayn, there’s a man wearing my costume-” 

Laughter bubbles out from Zayn and he nods, “I saw that.”

“What do you mean you saw? You didn’t think to tell me-” 

“I only saw him after you left to go dance,” Zayn says and holds his palm out to Louis for him to calm down, “I think that’s Harry, the guy who made all the baked goods. At least that’s what Perrie said.” 

“Perrie,” Louis looks past Zayn to the blonde, “who’s Harry?” 

She turns away from the small group of girls that’s gathered around her, “Youngest guy to join the school’s fraternity, works at the bakery downtown on weekends, and is majoring in photography. He also has an older sister named Gemma and is not only bisexual but single.” 

“I didn’t need that last bit,” Louis says with a roll of his eyes. She’s always trying to hook him up so they can go on double dates. “I think it’s fair to say that my night is ruined. There’s no way I’m winning first place with him walking around in practically the same costume.” 

“You might with an ass like yours.” 

Louis sighs, “Thank you, but flattery won’t help right now.” Then he turns to peer over at the dance floor to see Harry bopping his head along to the music as he sways from side to side. It’s like he’s completely in his own world as people around him are either snogging faces or dry humping one another. “Z, can you make him change?” 

“What?” Zayn blurts and furrows his eyebrows, “You’re seriously asking me to go ask the guy to change out of his costume?” 

“Or maybe send him to get more beer so he’ll miss them calling the winners?”

“Not legal drinking age,” Perrie pipes in before she kisses Zayn’s cheek and then follows her friends through the mass of bodies. 

Louis crosses his arms over his chest and leans against the wall. From what he can see, Harry has a glass of a green liquid that’s spewing fog from the top. There’s even a few gummy worms poking out over the rim. How old is this kid? “The guy is drinking some fruity cocktail instead of real alcohol, what is he? A girl?” 

Zayn just hums in acknowledgement. 

“And look at his hair, he needs a damn haircut. It doesn’t even look like he’s showered this month.” He crumbles the plastic cup in his hands and tosses it into a nearby trash can. “The damn game pieces look like he hand drew them while tripping on acid or something. Looks like a total three-year-old drew them.”

“I’m going outside for a smoke,” Zayn says as he’s already making his way to the back door. 

Louis groans and trudges after him, squeezing himself around other people in hopes of not spilling anyone’s drink. He could use a smoke break too. This whole situation is stressing him out and he needs to get away for a little bit. Louis flinches at the sudden wave of cold air that hits his face when he steps out onto the back patio. “Can I have my smokes?” 

With a mumbled stream of curses, Zayn is tossing the pack at him. It’s not his fault that his costume doesn’t come with any pockets. 

“Fuck it’s cold,” Louis says. He cups his hand around the end of his cigarette and inhales. A big cloud of smoke streams from his dry lips and his eyes practically roll into the back of his head. He needed this.

He’s pulled from his moment of euphoria when someone taps on his shoulder. Then he hears a familiar drawl of words. 

“Can I bum one off you?” Harry asks, a twinkle in his eyes and the corners of his lips turned upwards. 

Louis exchanges a look with Zayn before looking up at the freshman, “You’ve already stolen my costume, and now you want to steal my cigarettes too?” 

Harry’s eyebrows knit together and he looks Louis over for a minute. Then it’s like a sense of realization dawns on him, “You’re actually mad at me.”

“Wasn’t obvious enough?” He says and straightens up his stance. 

“I um,” Harry coughs into his fist, “I’m sorry. I didn’t think having the same costume was that big of a deal. I’ll just… leave you alone then. I’m sorry. Again.” He ducks his head down and makes his way back into the fraternity house. 

Louis takes another drag before breathing the smoke up into the air, “Fuckin’ hell.”

“That was a bit harsh,” Zayn comments and drops the butt before he crushes it under his toe, “The kid looked ready to cry.” 

“It’s not my fault he’s sensitive.” 

“Whatever, man,” Zayn shakes his head to himself and heads back inside.

Louis bites down on his lip and watches the door fall shut. Was he too harsh? This contest means a lot to him and surely Harry has to understand that, right? He looks down at his cigarette and flicks off the ashes. It’s not like Harry meant to dress up in the same costume. There’s no real way that he could have known and then decided he wanted to match. Hell, Harry probably had his costume picked out before him. He only decided on this a few days ago.

Fuck. He messed up.

Sighing, Louis stomps on the butt and then makes his way through the door. 

Once Louis has made his way back to the living room, where most of the party guests are, he sees Niall standing on top of a coffee table. “What is this kid doing?” he breathes out under his breath. 

“Can I have everyone’s attention?” Niall hollers as the music has already stopped and most of the conversation starts to die down. “Okay, thank you! So,” he claps his hands together, “it’s time for us to announce the winners of our costume contest. We’re going to start off with the top four in our singles, then we will move onto our couples. So can I have Andy Hurley, Bradley Simpson, Harry Styles, Jade Thirlwall, and Louis Tomlinson come up here?” 

Fuck Niall and his calling names in alphabetical order. The guy just nearly gave Louis a heart attack. He sighs and shakes his head before pushing his way up to the front along with the other four people. Wait, why did Niall call five people if there’s only four places? 

His thoughts are cut off when Niall hands the microphone over to Liam and he starts talking. 

“Hi guys! You all had about three hours, give or take, to write your vote and put it into the box by the door. If you haven’t then… you’ll know for next year.” Liam chuckles softly. “As you can probably see, we have five people up here and only four places, and that’s because there was a tie for one of those places.” 

Liam pulls out what looks to be like an index card from his pocket. 

“All right,” he breathes into the microphone as his eyes scan over the card, “in fourth place we have Andy as none other than Wolverine.” 

There’s a round of applause as Andy takes a step forward. Niall hurries over and sticks a handmade ribbon to the man’s chest. It’s an image of Frankenstein's Monster cut into a circle and has strands of black and orange ribbons dangling from the bottom. The number four is drawn in black marker over the face. 

“In third place we have Jade Thirlwall as… well, a reverse cowgirl.” 

Jade is laughing at the cheering as she steps forward and tips her hat off. She’s wearing the typical outfit of a cowgirl, only her clothes are backwards. 

Louis takes a deep breath and looks over at the two other people. Bradley is dressed as Spiderman, and Louis would be lying if he said the guy didn’t look hot in the spandex. It shows off his broad shoulders along with his muscular arms. He shakes his head to himself and tries to focus as Liam clears his throat into the microphone. 

“We’re officially down to first and second place. Separating the two was by a mere three votes, so it was certainly a close call. In first place we have…” 

He holds his breath.

“-Bradley Simpson as Spiderman!” 

Louis closes his eyes as his chest deflates. Second place. He got second place. There’s someone that suddenly is pressed up into his side and he looks over to see Harry, who’s looking anywhere but at him. 

“Er, you two will have to decide who gets this,” Niall says with a sheepish smile, holding up the second place ribbon.

Louis takes the ribbon from Niall with caution and stares down at it. The only difference from the other ribbons is the number two written on it. He bites down on his lip and holds it out to Harry, “You can have it.” 

All Harry can do is shake his head and look away, looking ready to flee. 

He nudges him, “I insist, man. I know I’ve been kind of an ass to you today-” 

Harry scoffs. 

“-okay,” he rolls his eyes, “a lot of an ass to you. This thing probably will mean more to you than me anyways. Plus, it could probably be good luck for you next year.” 

The taller man shifts from one foot to the other as he eyes Louis warily. 

“I won first place for the last two years,” Louis sighs with a shrug, “I get really competitive when it comes to these kind of things. When I saw that we had the same costume, I kind of freaked out and figured I was kissing my winning streak goodbye. So I took it out on you when I shouldn’t have. I’m sorry, I really am…” 

Harry runs a hand through his curls and chews on his lip, “Okay.” 

“It’s just a silly contest at the end of the day,” Louis says and hands the ribbon to him. Once he gets a nod from Harry, he turns on his heels and starts off to find Zayn. Until there’s a hand on his shoulder. He turns back to see Harry looking at him. 

“We can share it,” Harry suggests as he digs his toe into the floor, “Like one week I can have it. Then the next week you can have it.” 

Louis raises an eyebrow at him, “Like joint custody or summat?” 

The corners of Harry’s lips turn upwards into a grin, his dimples prominent, as he nods his head. 

He looks over the freshman from head to toe, then nods. “Okay, joint custody,” Louis says, “do I at least get visitation rights on your weeks? Maybe take you and the ribbon out to lunch.” 

Harry’s cheeks blossom and he ducks his head down, “I think we’d like that.” 

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first of four separate one shots that I have written for the month of October. Each one is dedicated to a person that has played an important role in my life since creating my Tumblr blog and AO3 account six months ago. It's the only way I really know how to thank them. 
> 
> This fic is dedicated to my britpicker, who has been with my since the beginning, tommosgun on Tumblr. Thank you so much for putting up with me and combing through my awful writing! You're the real MVP. 
> 
> I hope you enjoyed this fic and look forward to the next!


End file.
